CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
ALEXIUS
Alexius, Lucas, and Lexi took separate vehicles since none of them were going to leave at the same time. They rolled into the parking lot of Declan’s condo like a unit, and Alexius led the wolves to where he saw in screenshots that Everly had witnessed the vampire.
“She stood here.”
“She must have come out of this door,” Lexi said, pointing out the opening, her arm curving to mean the door leaving into the parking lot. “Caught the scent of blood?”
“Yeah. Our noses are sensitive to it,” Alexius confirmed.
“She’s particularly sensitive because she’s still a young vampire, and it’s close to the end of the night.
After being out all night, she’d want to feed a little before resting for the day.
She would have caught it the moment she entered the open air.
” Alexius went to where she would have been.
He considered the timing. There had been a couple of hours or so before sunrise.
She would have considered that before investigating.
The vampire had a superficial injury, but the human had drawn blood.
Everly had smelled both predator and prey.
He then did the walk from the door to where Everly saw the vampire. He didn’t like the positioning. From the angle, she was making a blind turn into the trouble.
“Walking her steps? Going to give her a performance review later?” Lucas asked, professional, none of the relaxed father stuff from the previous time they had seen each other.
Alexius privately wanted to be as far away from this werewolf as possible. He had thumped him like they were friends. They were not friends.
“Trying to understand what her reaction time could have been. From the blind turn, the vampire could have gotten the jump on her, but he was too focused on feeding. She was taken off-guard by how out in the open it was.”
“You can assume that?” Lucas again.
“Absolutely. Everly doesn’t feed on humans, not straight from the vein.
She doesn’t hunt. She prefers blood bags from donations.
Open feeding is also frowned upon. Exposure risk.
And it was a kill. She wasn’t mentally prepared for seeing a crime punishable by death right in front of her.
No one would be under the circumstances. ”
“By death?” Lexi said, hanging near her father, as far from Alexius as she could get.
“That’s what Alexius the Hunter does, Lexi. He hunts down other vampires who break their laws and/or Tribunal Law and executes them. Everly is his protégé… assistant?”
“Both.” He saw no reason to try to argue what her title was or explain. She was both of those things, his only roommate, his friend, his lover. The object of his lust. She was a lot of things to him.
“Everly helps kill people? Or does she do paperwork?”
“She killed a vampire with a frying pan once,” Alexius said, staring at the spot where the vampire had been feeding on the human.
His words were dry, clinical; the gore and violence he described was commonplace to him.
“Pulverized his skull and brains and other bits into a meaningless pile of gore. He’d been leading his friends on a killing spree in Alaska that had started with a few human family members of the werewolf pack up there. ”
“Well, you didn’t need to say all of that,” Lucas said, chastising Alexius, so Alexius turned around. “But I heard about all that. Didn’t know it was you and Everly, but then I manage things locally, not with other packs.”
“I still think I could take her in a fight,” Lexi muttered.
Alexius laughed. Softly and condescendingly, he laughed as he looked at the werewolf woman Declan was so enamored by. He couldn’t stop himself.
“It’s painfully obvious you have never fought for your life.
Everly walks into every fight believing she might die at the end of it and leaves nothing off the table.
You would lose. That’s why Callahan doesn’t want this escalating any further.
She would severely injury or kill you. Your father would rightfully take issue.
He’d come after Everly. I won’t let any of you have her, no matter who was or wasn’t at fault.
“Callahan is suddenly on the bad side of a battle he knows will destroy a good portion of his pack needlessly, even if the pack somehow kills me in the process. I’m too much of an asset for Isaiah and Maria, also Tribunal members, to lose, so they would be helping me, with the full backing of their nest. Then we have a war that risks our exposure to humanity, and no one wants humans to know that vampires are real and that other supernaturals have been helping them.
Your father knows this. I can tell by looking at him that he knows this.
So, if he’s told you that you won’t win the fight and to leave Everly alone, you should listen to him. ”
Lexi took a step back and slightly to the side, ending up farther behind her father.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to explain to you, Lexi,” Lucas said, huffing.
“I’m just too nice to put it like that. Doesn’t matter if you think you can win.
A fight can’t happen. Even if you did win, Alexius here would want your head.
I, your father, would want to protect you.
Callahan would have to make the choice to give you, me, and your mother up to him for the death of Everly Abbott.
And you know actually fighting Everly would ruin things with Declan. ”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
“Then let it go,” Lucas said. “Now let’s get to work and drop this whole topic. Lexi, you got a scent to pick up. It’ll be faint. You might have noticed there’s something about vampires. Make sure to take that into account.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, stepping forward. Alexius walked to point out where the vampire had fed and bled. He could barely pick up the faintest smell of the blood now. The cleanup crew had done a good job. Lexi sniffed hard, and Lucas did as well.
“I think I have it?” she said, frowning.
“Yeah, you probably do. It’s really faint. Already cleaned up,” Lucas commented.
“Maria. I notified Maria right after Everly told me. We had limited time before daylight, and people come in and out of spaces like these all the time. We had to move fast.”
“All right, Lexi. You go back to the party. We got this from here. Tell your mother everything will be fine. I’ll stay in touch.”
“Okay…” Lexi took a couple more big sniffs. “That’s so faint…” Then she walked away.
Alexius looked at Lucas, crossing his arms. Once Lexi’s car drove by and went onto the road, he spoke. “I’m not sorry for being harsh with her,” Alexius said when Lucas looked at him.
“We trained her. She knows how to fight… but you’re right. She’s never fought for anything more than training. She’ll be a great wolf in a century. Lots of growing up to do still. It is what it is.”
“What’s the chance we can convince her to let Declan go?” Alexius had to ask. He looked at decades of this between Lexi and Everly and couldn’t begin to deal with it.
“She loves him far too much for that, and I like him. So, no chance. He wants to marry her… well, it’s postponed now, but I think Lexi and Declan can work this out and be fine.
” Lucas started walking. “The vampire went this way.” He took another ten steps, Alexius close behind him.
“Here is where your girl got on the trail to chase him down. Thought she said she didn’t. ”
“She didn’t go far, reversing early from her initial description to me,” Alexius explained, coming up beside Lucas. “Thankfully, she didn’t go too far into the hunt. I would have torn up the city if she didn’t get back by sunrise and was stuck somewhere I couldn’t find her.”
“You know, when we first met, I figured you were more… fatherly to her,” Lucas said softly. “But there’s nothing fatherly about your… dynamic with her, is there?”
“Not at all. I mentor her in the work and try to guide her in being a vampire because she needs those things, and I was the one who dragged her into immortality. We’re sleeping together because we want to.
” Alexius saw no reason to hide or lie about it.
If the vampire ancients thought they were, there was now no point in trying to obfuscate.
The werewolves needed to know if they were going to be around.
He’d been showy at the party, so they knew who she was to him.
Since he had never walked in public touching a lover, being affectionate the way he wanted to be with Everly, even the simplest touch was going to catch people’s attention.
“Oh.” Lucas blinked several times, then his nostrils flared. “You showered before you came to the party, and that helps hide the delicate, impossible smells of you vampires, but…” His nostrils flared again. “There she is.”
“Go back to sniffing what you’re supposed to be.” Some werewolves knew how to read the information their nose picked up better than others. Centuries of experience. Lucas had that.
Alexius was grateful he got a good wolf for the tracking job. He was also a touch frustrated that Lucas could be overly familiar and nosy.
“Of course. Back to sniffing.”
They continued to walk, and it was only twenty yards later that Everly gave up the chase. For her speed, that was a fast turnaround.
“I’m glad she didn’t chase,” he repeated to himself, and they kept moving.
The neighborhood shifted. From middle class to not, then further along to more of an industrial area.
Two hours in, Alexius stopped and looked at Lucas.
“You should head back. It’s late.”
“I’ll keep walking with you. Lexi or Yiva will pick me up to go back for my truck. They have my location.” He wiggled his phone and smiled. “They’re actually leaving the party now. Declan left twenty minutes ago.”
Alexius decided to check his phone at that and saw Everly had texted him to say she’d be home soon.
“This vampire was running really fast to cover all this before sunrise,” Lucas pointed out.